When they got to the Health Centre it was closed for lunch but “luckily Carmel [Lyttle], who’s usually up stairs, was down stairs” and heard them banging on the door, she said.

“The doctor came running down the stairs,” Josie added “they got him into the treatment room and he passed out.”

After that Thomas’ heart stopped and “he was gone” for 20-30 minutes, but the GPs kept trying to bring him back.

“They just worked and worked on him,” Josie said, “then they finally got a pulse.

“They did the defibrillator five times... it was right beside him - everything just worked out so well.”

Aside from the GPs and surgery staff who helped save him, Thomas has also praised Fr Fee who rushed to give his blessing, the paramedics who alerted the Cardiology Cath Lab as they rushed him to Craigavon Hospital, Intensive Care and One North staff who nursed him back to health.

“They all need stars,” Thomas said. “They are the finest people that have ever worked on me. I hear people saying the hospitals are bad, but I don’t see anything bad about them.”

“He’s a walking miracle, no brain damage or anything with the lack of oxygen for half an hour,” Josie added.

And Thomas agrees.

He said that day he was wearing his favourite T-shirt, which said: “Jesus loves you. But I’m his favourite.”